Thanks. What I linked from HD is $33 for 12 that are 3/8” 8’ ($2.75 ea) and wellscroft is $4.80/7’ 3/8”.
I ended up ordering metal rebar and will be spray painting it. I don’t want to deal with splintering fiberglass in my gardens now or in a few years.
I was looking for a quantity in the hd site and missed it. Good deal there since those are 8 foot long. There definitely is a shorter life span for the FRP rods, since steel rebar lasts almost forever. I have steel rebar also, which I got second hand, and it has an epoxy coating, the best of both types.
Oh interesting- I didn’t find any epoxy coated rebar. That does sound great.
I have bought many of these over the past several years, actually three various models, sent from Home Depot some from Lowe’s. All of them have turned out to be very durable. I have just grasped them and used body weight to drive them into the ground when it was not very dry and hard, so I have not used any striking device like a hammer to drive them into the ground however, they are heavily resin clad, so I I think they should hold up fairly well to being driven into the ground with a hammer. I have mainly employed them in threes, to build deer proof armor for young trees. Both for aesthetic reasons and to protect them from ultraviolet I have used exterior spray paint, and created a sort of camouflage pattern of neutral earth stones to avoid creating eye sores for Neighbors. I’ll try to post some pictures.
Well, the one you are showing from Home Depot is epoxy resin coated, fiberglass, at least in the ones that I have purchased of exactly that model has never been exposed, but rather encased. I have used bolt cutters in the past to cut them, but they typically caused the damaged ends more recently have used a hacksaw. So I have been buying the 10 foot long ones, and cutting them in half. 5 feet is plenty to drive into the ground and leave about a 4 foot pole. Recently, I discovered that Lowe’s sells 20 foot long ones which is even more economical. But you have to bring the hacksaw to the store with you so that you can fit them into the car.
The ice storm we had back in Jan… bent most of the stakes I had my Kiowa blackberries supported with.
I ordered some 6 ft, 1/2 in diameter fiberglass rods… they were sharpened on one end.
They are working nicely and we’re easy to install… they will flex a little with wind… but do not bend or break.
The finish on them was nice and smooth/slick… no splinters at all… just like the smaller ones I get from TSC and use for Raspberries. I hammered them in easily with my rubber mallet.
I think these were the ones that I got.
TNHunter